Carbon nanofibers have a tendency to interact and entangle themselves with other carbon nanofibers. This may be due, at least in part, to the physiochemical properties of the carbon nanofiber surfaces. Further, these properties may also, in some instances, render the nanofibers incompatible with the chemical nature of certain polymeric systems. Problems may arise when attempting to uniformly distribute carbon nanofibers into a polymeric system, due in part, to the potential agglomeration of the nanofibers and to the potential incompatibility of the nanofibers with the polymeric system. Further, the agglomeration of nanofibers may substantially reduce the effect of the nanofibers as reinforcement fillers in a polymeric system. Still further, the agglomeration of nanofibers may, in some instances, cause local defects, which may lead to reduced mechanical properties of the polymeric system.
As such, it would be desirable to provide nanofibers having reduced fiber-to-fiber interaction and increased compatibility with polymeric systems.